HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!

We celebrated Scott's birthday Friday night. (Even though his b-day is today) I had the cake ready and his gifts all on the table and the camera in the kitchen. The gifts were open and the cake was already cut when I realized I didn't take any pictures. I am just horrible about having the camera nearby when it's needed.

Sunday afternoon we went to the hockey rink that is about 40 minutes away from us in Gullegem. (Pronounced Hula-hem) Check it out at www.finlandia.be. Much to Scott's surprise the ice was pretty bad, especially in the corners. AND...THERE WAS NO PLEXI-GLASS. NO GLASS AT ALL! Which explains why there were no bleachers/stands for the fans. There was a restaurant upstairs that over-looked the rink, like in Duluth, GA. (Much better than Duluth's) We can't wait to go watch the Gullegem Jets play in November. We're wondering if they check?Who are these cute little guys you ask - Noah is on the left and Adam is on the right. They are our "around the corner-down the street" neighbor's twins. Bob and Robin are from the U.S. and he works for Scientific Atlanta as well. Robin had to take their other son Ryan to his new pre-school and I had the honor of watching the little guys. The hour I watched them went by really fast. We played and they kind-of ate. At least one of them did. I'm not quite coordinated when it comes to feeding 2 at the same time. Plenty of time to learn, right! We visited the city of Ieper (Ee-Pur) on Sunday. This is a town that was heavily bombed and pretty much destroyed during WWI. It's amazing how they re-built it to it's gothic/medieval style. When we were driving out of the town looking at all of the corn fields we actually saw "holes" in the ground from where the bombs had landed.
This is the Menin Gate monument in Ieper that is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of men who were never buried because they were never found or not able to be identified. Every night at 8pm they have a dedication ceremony to remember those who lost their lives during the war. This ceremony has been held every night since the war was over. Below is a picture of the main church in town: St. Martin's Cathedral. Destroyed during the war but also rebuilt.
Quick change of subject: Lacy's True Halloween Ghost Story

Some of you have heard this before but I'm sure it will still leave you laughing b/c of course it has to happen to me:

When we first moved into our house I was skeptical b/c it was supposedly built in the 1600's. I always say the 1800's b/c it sounds a little less scary. Of course, it has been recently renovated but we have no clue what it used to be. I've searched on-line and have come up unsuccessfully at what it used to be. To date, I have not had any "sightings" inside my house but across the street is a different story:
When we first moved in we ran into our neighbors across the street. They own this abnormally large house. It covers at least one entire block of two streets. They told us they live in the house with their 2 daughters. Scott and I walked away from that conversation - happy - that we'd met our neighbors and that they spoke English.
Then, one day, I was sitting in the living room and happened to look out our window (we have our curtains tied back so you can see out the window.) when all of a sudden "Dakota Fanning" appeared out of no where - she pulled back her curtains - waved - then disappeared. I call her "Dakota" because she looks exactly like Dakota Fanning. This was my first "sighting" of Dakota and I didn't think anything of it until I kept seeing a family of 3. I was absolutely sure they said they had 2 daughters under the age of 7. Week after week a family of 3 would go to church. One week the father and other daughter went to church while the mom waved to them from the front door...still no second daughter. (Wouldn't both daughters go to church?) The "Dakota" sightings only happen with me. The same thing every time. Same window. Same movements: curtains moves - she waves - disappears.
However, Scott was working in our home office one Saturday and yelled for me to look at the window and I did and the family of 4 was standing at the door waving. My first thought was of relief b/c she's not a ghost but then my mind quickly went into the movie - "The Others." Maybe she is a ghost trying to fit in to her old family?! I went on with life accepting the fact that "Dakota was real." Until last week:
This is a part that my "Dakota sighting fan club" hasn't heard:
It's starting to get dark very early here - around 6:30 - 7:00 and Scott doesn't get home until around 8:30 each night. Once again he wasn't here for this but here's what happened:
I saw the lights go on in the "sighting room" and the mom and dad and other daughter were cleaning. (No I'm not staring - our house is just really close to theirs) When they finished they turned out the lights and left the room and no less than 1 minute later, Dakota opened the curtains - waved - and shut them back. It makes it more scary now that I'm seeing her at night.

In case your wondering - I always wave back!

My friend Shannon sent me this e-card to make me think Dakota "knows" me. Click here to view it.

Happy Halloween!

Ah, Paris!

















What a busy Monday! I usually have the blog posted before 8:00am eastern time and I'm way behind today. I've been working on a side project for my sister-in-law. It's not done yet but check it out at www.kellyscustomclips.com. I've never designed a web-site before, but with the help of dot-easy.com it's been a blast.

We went to Paris this past Saturday and once again the Eiffel Tower is just wonderful. Look at how the trees are changing colors. That picture is in the park right under the Eiffel Tower. The Notre Dame Cathedral is the other pic. We'll be back in Paris over Thanksgiving with our friends, Damon and Danielle and be able to visit the other sites of Paris.

We dropped Scott's mom off at the Amsterdam airport yesterday at 6:30 am. Because it was
2 1/2 hours away Scott and I split the drive. I drove back from the airport. All the way to the outskirts of Brugge. Yeah Me!

Top 5 signs Europeans can tell your an American:

5) Your shoes
4) Your clothes
3) The tour book or map in your hand
2) The way you hold your fork and knife
1) The way you try to speak their language but jumble it all up.

I do try to fit in - only because I live here and I want to be accepted, but I haven't changed my shoes to theirs (and doubt I ever will), I may eventually convert my clothes but not now. I never carry a tour book in my hand and only keep a map in my purse for emergency situations only.

When Scott and I went out to dinner last night we decided for the next month to hold the fork and knife the way Europeans do. Americans scoop it up and into our mouths and Europeans poke the food and hold the fork where the bottom is up top and then place it in their mouth. It took a few bites to get used to it but we think we can keep it up.

I almost cried at the restaurant the other night. I usually try and only speak Dutch when I go anywhere and this time the waitress said, " Jij spreekt veel goed nederlands" Which translates to "You speak very good Dutch." For a Belgian to say that is huge. I still jumble sentences together but I feel I'm making progress.

I get stopped on the street all the time by tourists asking if I know how to get somewhere so maybe I'm blending more that I think.

Until next time...

Midweek Update Click HERE to see our Prague pictures.

Click HERE to see our Normandy pictures.

CZECH us out!

No, I'm usually not that corny but all of the souvie t-shirts in Prague said "Czech Me Out" on them and we just had to laugh. Ok, one last time: Czech out these numbers from our trip:

• 287 stairs climbed to get to the top of the Prague Castle. Not normal stairs but a spiral - enclosed stairwell. Got enough cardio that day!
• 225 km was our top speed on the autobahn - in case your wondering it equates to around 140mph. Zoom, Zoom!
• 50 Czech Republic Koruna = $2.00 U.S. Dollars. 50KR will get you 2 Budweiser beers. The Budweiser Beer was actually first made in Czech. Then the U.S Company took the name and branded their own beer. Scott says the Czech Bud wasn't as good as the U.S.
• $40 U.S. dollars was the total cost of our meal one night. 3 people, 3 dinners 2 bar drinks, 1 bottle of wine, 2 beers, 2 desserts. Can't beat that.
• 30 hours went in to planning this trip. Got to have all your ducks in a row when traveling to foreign countries.
• 20 total hours in a car. 10 each way! Thanks Scott for driving the entire time. I was a little intimidated by the autobahn.
• 4 countries visited in 4 days: Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic. No stamps in the passport though. They are all in the EU.
• 3 cities visited on our trip:Prague, Czech Republic - Nurnberg, Germany - Rothenburg, Germany
• 3 castles / 3 churched / 3 languages spoke (ok - I didn't even attempt Czech - I think I said please once!)
• 2 Nutcrackers purchased from the Nutcracker store in Germany.
• 1 time we were stopped by the Czech Police:

As we were leaving Prague Saturday morning around 9 am we were pulled over by the local Czech policeman. Normally, I would have freaking out but I was thinking "what could he possibly want with us?" I had planned this trip to a T. We had our Road Pass. You have to purchase this at the border and put it on your car. It shows you've paid to drive on their roads. We had that and it was good for 3 to 5 days. We'd been there 2 days. Scott was going way under the speed limit b/c I remember thinking "Why is he going so slow?" We had our passports and our visa documents, I had our itinerary for the trip so what else could he possibly want with us. He kindly asked us to turn on our lights. Maybe it's a law - Maybe it was foggy that day. Who knows but we kept them on the rest of the way.

Germany is the home of the Brat, Beer, Pretzel, and Ginger Bread. We had one of each. We stumbled upon a little German festival with the German singers in there traditional German clothes and all. I'm not much of a beer drinker but I did have 2 this weekend. The one I had in Czech was a PilsnerUrquell and it was 12% alcohol. More than the Belgium beer. We had a great time and hope to go back to Prague in the winter. The city has a unique feel to it and we loved the Russian influence over it. It has moved to my #1 European city. Brugge is a close #2. Sorry Brugge!

Jacke leaves on Sunday and we have one last trip planned. Everyone must see the Eiffel Tower so we are driving to Paris on Friday or Saturday to see it.

I'll upload all of the pictures from Prague and Normandy later this week so CZECH back then. ;)

Normandy, France This weekend we traveled to Normandy, France. It was a very fast-paced trip because there was a lot to see in the 36 hours we were there. It took us about 4 hours to get to our first stop in Rouen. Rouen is a popular city because Joan of Arc was burned at the stake here. Below is a monument in her honor.

The picture above is from Mount St. Michel in France. It's the most breathtaking view. Construction began on the Mount in the 1100's by St. Aubert who had a vision from Michael the archangel to built this. It was a monastery with monks until the French Revolution then it became a prison - now it's a tourist attraction. The best thing about the Mount is that when the tides are low it is surrounded by sand and when the tides are high it's surrounded by water. We came at just the right time and got to see both. The tides are just starting in the picture above.
The D-Day beaches were very serene. It brings out a somber emotion seeing first hand what the thousands of armed forces went through. The picture below is of the Arromanches. Make-shift harbors were made out in the sea to tie the ships to and store artillery. They were also linked together so the vehicles could transport the wounded back to safety and get our vehicles to land.
The American Cemetery is beyond words. It over looks Omaha Beach which saw the worst loss of all of the beaches. The crosses go on for acres and acres. There are 9,386 graves at the American Cemetery.

Out of remembrance for everyone who gave their life and those who put their life on the line June 6, 1944 and the 77 days following, I'm just going to end today's blog a little early. It hard to be witty and funny when an indescribable emotion hits you because of the events that happened so long ago and how it changed the course of history.

Be back next week for cheery Prague. I'm thinking that the Czechoslovakian split into Czech Republic and Slovakia won't be as emotional. ;)

Amsterdam, Holland (Netherlands)We picked up Scott's mom, Jacke, at the Amsterdam Schiphol on Saturday morning. Her luggage didn't make her flight so we were able to tour the city of Amsterdam a while until the next flight came in with her luggage. We visited the city at about 7:00 am in the morning so it was pretty dead. Very beautiful canals though. When our friends, Damon and Danielle, come in November will have more photos of the city and touristy spots. We stopped at a gas station on the way home (it's about 2 1/2 hours from Brugge) and thought we saw tulips (just a guess since we were in Holland) but much to our surprise they were - PUMPKINS. Happy Fall!

Recovering from jet-lag is not easy so we took it easy all weekend. On Sunday we drove to the North Sea (see pictures from another blog) and then went to another beach town - Oostende. Super crowded since it was still nice out. We'll probably go back sometime but, isn't that gothic style church in the picture above beautiful. There was a little carnival going on - hence the ferris-wheel.

So, to pose another question like a did last week:
Does anyone under the age of 30 really know how to iron?

In Belgium, a dry cleaner is very rare. If your at a hotel they'll have the service for about $12/shirt and outside of are city it's about $9/shirt. Believe me, I've asked Scott to fit that in our budget but I just get a "no." That only leaves me to iron. I can flub my way through a pair of women's dress pants or shirt but a men's work shirt?! That is the most difficult thing to iron. Having no prior experience on ironing that kind of shirt I finally was able to finish one in under 25 minutes. After spending one entire day ironing I pretty much gave up and the pile grew large and larger. Now it's just overwhelming and Scott is down to about 3 shirts left after 2 months of me not ironing.

Luckily, my mother-in-law, Jacke, knows how to iron....and just my luck she's here visiting right in time. She's going to show me what to do and how to do it properly. Maybe I'll get under 10 minutes per shirt.

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We are all off to Normandy, France next weekend! Until next Monday!